Patients with diabetes are more susceptible to developing oral bacterial infections.
They are well known to have an impaired defense mechanism hence considered to be immuno-compromised.
Diabetics with diabetic complications and poor metabolic control are more prone to spreading and recurrent bacterial infection.
Several studies have reported that patients with diabetes are more prone to deep neck bacterial infection compared to patient without diabetes.
A fouryear prospective study by Rao et al. investigated the severity of maxillofacial space infection of odontogenic origin, the type of micro-organism, the sensitivity of the micro-organisms to antibiotics, and the length of hospital stay of patients with diabetes compared with patients without diabetes.
They concluded that the spread of the bacterial infection to the submandibular space was more common in patients and controls and that the second commonest area was the buccal space.
Streptococcus species was more commonly isolated in both groups.
Patients with diabetes were found to stay longer in hospital due to more severe infection and required more time to control their blood glucose levels.